Divided Poland marks anniversary of Russia crash

AFP – People waves flags in front of the presidential palace in Warsaw April 10, 2011, to commemorate the first …

by Stanislaw Waszak Stanislaw Waszak – 1 hr 52 mins ago

WARSAW (AFP) – Poland on Sunday marked the one-year anniversary of a plane crash in Russia that killed president Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other high-profile Poles, amid bitter domestic divisions and a row with Moscow.

At a ceremony in central Warsaw, the late president's identical twin and current conservative opposition leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, lashed out.

He slammed the "weakness of the (Polish) state, which was not up to the task of protecting its own president".

In a stark sign of splits in Poland's establishment, the Kaczynski twins' Law and Justice party (PiS) boycotted official events and organised its own.

Earlier Sunday, at 8:41 am (0641 GMT), the exact time of the April 10, 2010, tragedy in Smolensk, western Russia, a visibly emotional President Bronislaw Komorowski paid silent tribute to his predecessor and the 95 other victims in a Warsaw church.

Bowing before a memorial plaque, Komorowski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk -- both from the centre-right Civic Platform (PO), PiS's nemesis -- placed candles, a traditional mourning symbol in deeply Catholic Poland.

Later, in a Warsaw cemetery where many of the victims lie, Komorowski appealed for the tragedy not to be a source of strife.

"A year on, we should see what is great, what is good," he said.

"One of the finest memorials we can build together is to care for the dreams and passion of those who died, so that they find followers who will carry their passion, dreams and hopes into the future," he added.

At the presidential palace, thousands of Kaczynski supporters gathered before a makeshift shrine. At the foot of a birchwood cross was a model of Poland's presidential Tupolev 154 jet broken in two.

Lech Kaczynski's delegation had been bound for a commemoration in the Katyn forest, near Smolensk, for some 22,000 captured Polish officers slain by the Soviet secret police in 1940.

On Saturday and Sunday, Warsaw and Moscow traded barbs over the removal of a Polish-language memorial plaque in Smolensk which stated that the crash victims were heading to Katyn.

The Polish foreign ministry warned that Komorowski may not lay a wreath Monday when he meets with Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev there, but PiS demanded he cancel the trip outright.

On Sunday, Russia expressed "bewilderment" at Polish protests, saying Warsaw had been informed in advance about a bilingual plaque that did not mention Katyn.

Poland has also contested Russia's probe of the disaster, which blamed the Polish pilots for trying to land in fog.

Warsaw has complained of a whitewash of the Russian air traffic controllers and the shoddy state of Smolensk airport.

After Russia released its findings in January, Jaroslaw Kaczynski dubbed it a "mockery" and claimed that Tusk's government was being too soft on Russia. Tusk appealed for the issue not to be politicised.

Besides Lech Kaczynski and his wife, the crash victims included other senior politicians, military top brass and -- in a bitter twist -- relatives of those shot at Katyn.

The World War II massacre has remained a thorn in Polish-Russian ties.

Moscow blamed Nazi Germany until 1990, and Poles could not discuss it openly until Warsaw's post-war communist regime fell in 1989.

It has rarely been discussed in Russia since the Soviet Union's 1991 demise.

A year ago, Poles mourned together across party lines, but that unity is long gone.

The Kaczynskis, who clashed frequently with fellow European Union leaders and Moscow, were icons for conservative nationalists but often loathed by opponents.

PiS lost its presidential brake on PO when Komorowski beat Jaroslaw Kaczynski in a snap election after the crash.

The anniversary comes six months before a general election, with PiS trailing PO in polls.